


Second Chances

by That_Girl_Under_A_Rock



Category: Robin Hood (BBC 2006)
Genre: Also Marian deserved better, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Family Drama, Gen, Guy closes himself off a lot, Guy needed a better redemption arc, Team as Family, after the series, redemption arc
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 08:04:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13267197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_Girl_Under_A_Rock/pseuds/That_Girl_Under_A_Rock
Summary: Guy has managed to survive the destruction of Nottingham, despite his near fatal wounds. He is later found outside a new village by a healer who is more than willing to help him.





	1. Chapter 1

The sun shown low in the cloudy evening sky ,casting a grey light over the forest. The wind rustling through the leaves on the  ground had Ellyn glancing behind every bush and tree trunk every few minutes. The young woman didn’t normally go into the forest so late, she would have much rather been in her home sitting in front of a small fire, but she needed more herbs for her private stores.

 People had begun to flood into Ellyn’s village seeking shelter and help. After the destruction of Nottingham castle much of the town had fallen with it. The village was doing what they could to help support the displaced peasants, and this meant that Ellyn’s job as a healer had gotten more hectic and her supplies dwindled within the week. She already had the thyme and rosemary she needed sorted carefully in her basket, all that was missing was the feverfew. Not that, so many people were sick or had head aches, but still, she only had so much left.

It wasn’t until Ellyn was deeper into the forest that she found the little white flowers littering the ground between some large trees. Kneeling down the dark haired woman picked a few bunches and layered them neatly in her basket. She took a moment to look around the area once more, in case there was something else that could be useful, and that was when you heard the quiet mumbling.

Getting to her feet Ellyn crept toward a large tree, the flowers growing more sparse as she got closer. “Hello?” she called, “Is someone there?” Ellyn took a few more steps and peered around the tree. There sat a dark haired man clutching his side. “Oh- Oh my! A-are you okay?”

He slowly turned his head toward her and moved his hand from his side. His hand was stained red and a sheen of sweat covered his face. He took a breath, and pressed his hand back to his side.

“Here let me help you up,” Ellyn offered shifting the basket in her hand. “I don’t live far- I can help you.”

The man shook his head. “It is better if you leave me,” He answered in a deep but quiet voice.

“For who is it better?”  She sighed heavily and shook her head making her black curls bounce with each movement. “Please come with me, I can’t just leave you out here to die.”

The man looked at her with clear blue eyes, unsure as to why she was so insistent on helping him. The very people he had been fighting along side had left him to die. Not that he could blame them. He knew his past crimes, and he needed to atone.

 Ellyn didn’t know who the man was, only that he needed help or he was not going to last very long. The name Sir Guy of Gisborne, wouldn’t sway her decision much either. She’d only heard rumor of what happened in Nottingham. If Ellyn were to listen to every rumor that swept through the village, she’d end up believing when some called her a witch. Instead, for better or worse, she waited for experience before making any kind of decision. She did her best to live a quiet life away from the mess starting up because of Prince John’s appointees and some outlaws. The healer did what she could to help her village, and hoped that the outlaws in Sherwood were taking care of their people as well as rumor claimed.

Ellyn offered him a hint of a smile, “My name is Ellyn. Now are you going to help me get you on your feet or am I going to have to let gash in your side fester longer while I figure out a way to drag you to shelter?”

Guy looked up at the sky with a heavy sigh. If the Sheriff was right about one thing, truly a woman would be the death of him. “Fine,” he answered at last, and lifted his arm to put around her shoulders. Using Ellyn and the tree for support he pushed himself to his feet with a pained grunt. He took a few uneven breathes once he was up and muttered something that sounded like, “My name is not ‘you’, I am Sir Guy of Gisborne.”

Ellyn quickly found that Guy was much taller than she realized and much heavier than she thought he would be, as they both nearly fell with the first two steps. She looked up at him as he gave her a stern look, a small sheen of sweat more visible on his forehead. He still wanted her to leave him, instead Ellyn jut out her chin stubbornly and continued to stumble with him across the woods and back to her hut.

Somewhere along the way, Guy passed out from the exertion, leaving Ellyn to huff and puff as she lead him into her home. She fumbled and dropped Guy on straw mat on the far side of her hut. After tucking a blanket under his head, she removed his tightly drawn coat and set it aside to wash for later. He woke up or rather, mumbled something of a complaint as she cut away parts of his shirt that had become stuck to his skin with dried blood.

“Guy, if you’re going to be awake for this, as you probably should be, drink some of this,” Ellyn ordered before helping him lift his head and having him drink a cup of mead to dull his senses. She then got a wet cloth and carefully started peeling away the caked on cloth, earning a few hisses and winces as she got closer to the heart of the problem.

“I know it hurts Guy, but I’m only going to have you drink more mead, and I don’t have much of that left. You’re going to want it for later.”

She wiped off  majority of the dried blood from his side, then got to look more closely at the cut in his torso. Before doing anything else, she helped Guy drink more mead, and made sure that her sharpest needle was ready. After a bit of an examination, she found that Guy’s wound was not as deep as she thought it would be, but it was long. He had been very lucky. Had whatever struck him been more to the left, he would have died early on.

Ellyn worked though most of the night  attempting to stitch the wound to the best of her abilities. Some time in the middle of the night, Guy passed out again, something that only mad her worry more even after finishing the stitching on wound. She did her best to stay awake through the night to be sure that he was only sleeping. It was not until the sun had just started to peek out beneath the tree line that her patient stirred again.

Guy found Ellyn sitting on her own straw pad against the wall, her dark head of hair falling and bouncing around her tan face the longer she tried to fight off sleep. “You look really tired,” He greeted hoarsely and let out a small breath of amusement as she sprang to her feet and nearly crashed into the shelf full of herbs. His head was throbbing, and his side was itching like hell but after Ellyn’s willfulness from the night before, he thought it best not to touch the wrappings.

Ellyn gathered her bearings and made sure the shelf was okay before turning to the man, “Yes, well, I’m sure there is a reason for that- I- um- How are you feeling…Guy?” she asked, both unsure of his wellbeing and his name.

The former knight gave a small nod, guessing that she did hear his name the night before, and still chosen to help him. “I’m as well as can be expected,” he grunted as he tried to sit up. Folded neatly next to him was new, well new to him, shirt that he stiffly pulled on over his bandages.

Ellyn walked to a window where she draped his coat to dry in the night, and frowned at it still finding it wet. “Well at least you’re moving a little and sitting up. I just wouldn’t do too much of that if I were you.” She grabbed him an apple and handed it to him before taking one for herself and sitting back on her straw mat.

Guy said nothing instead just studying the fruit for a moment before taking a bite. He looked at her and then to the doorway before trying to force himself to his feet. “Thank you for your help Ellyn but I need to get going.”

“What?” She jumped to her feet, this time without stumbling. “You’re not leaving with wound like that.”

“I can and I will,” Guy argued still trying to stand.

“You can barely stand!” Ellyn put her hands on his shoulders and made him sit down again. “Look, I don’t know how you were wounded, but I’m guessing that it wasn’t because of some branches in the woods decided to tickle you. What I do know is that there are maggots in that wrapping and I’ll have to replace both within the next hour or two.”

Guy looked down at his torso for a moment, shuddered, and looked back at the healer.

“Just stay with me until you’re able to take care of that yourself if you’re so eager to leave.”

“Why does it matter if I get better or not? I’m the last person you should be helping.”

She looked at him closely and then knelt down in front of him.  “Because I don’t know you, I only knew that you looked like you needed help and- And I think _someone_ really wanted to give you a second chance, to do what I don’t know, but they must have thought you deserved it.”

Guy looked at Ellyn silently, his clear blue eyes searching her face for something. Wondering why a stranger would do such a thing for him of all people. He sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall. “Very well, until I do not need your help, I will stay.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fever dreams are not fun, especially when one's darkest memories begin to surface again.

                Hours had gone by since Ellyn had changed Guy’s bandages. Despite wanting to spend majority of the morning catching up on lost sleep, she knew she was going to have to take a trip down to the river to have water for her patient. After his fussing from the morning and a new set of bandages, Guy fell back asleep. His quiet snores mixed with the chirping of the birds from outside Ellyn’s home, easily filling the silence as she went about organizing the plants she had gathered from the night before into little jars on her shelf.

                Jars sealed and laid on the ground in front of her, Ellyn sat back with sigh and looked up at the ceiling. The sun was already high over head and though she had yet to leave her hut, she found herself constantly wiping sweat from her brow or wiping her hands on her skirts to rid herself of sweat. With a tired sigh she looked over at the dark haired man still sleeping soundly on his back, his black hair splayed out behind his head. She studied his face for a moment wondering how a knight of all people came to be all alone and wounded in the woods. Of course there were still people from Nottingham coming through her village everyday, but none of them claimed the title ‘sir’ or ‘lady.’

                “Marian….”

                Ellyn looked up hearing the mumbled name, but no one stood in her doorway. She looked at Guy, but he was still laying on the straw mat asleep. With a furrow between her brows she turned her attention back to the jars in front of her.

                “I’m sorry…”

                Ellyn looked at Guy again. “Guy?”

                “I couldn’t- You shouldn’t have….. Marian,” She heard him mutter again.

                She got up and kneeled next to him to lay her hand on his forehead. Whether it was her own warm hands or the heat from the day, Guy felt much too warm. The corners of her mouth pulled down in concern as she started to notice a sickly pale tinge to his skin. Of course she knew he was weak, but given the heat and how much he had slept, she was suspecting it was more than that. She pulled her hand away and sat back on her heels thinking. He was breathing okay, but his temperature was what had her worried. She quickly got to her feet and grabbed a bucket. It would be a while before she returned with water, but letting Guy have something to drink was going to give him the best chance of getting through the fever.

 

* * *

 

               

                It would be a while before Ellyn returned, but Sir Guy was not aware of this as he was trapped inside his memories. He could still feel it, the sun glaring down on him as charged through the city of Accra. Sweat dripped from his brow and into his eyes as he ran after Marian, her white dress fluttering with each stride she took away from him. She flashed a smile, that smile he had loved with all of his being. Guy destroyed her. He could still feel the sword in his hand, see the light dancing on the blade, taste the burn in the back of his throat as he cried out in horror for what he had done. He left her there to die. Marian who had been kind to him, tried to see good in him. Everything good in his world, he destroyed her and ran. He could not even face what he had done.

                “Guy?”

                He could feel his body burning with each step he took away from his actions. Guy could still feel the burning in the back of his throat from when he had tried to drown his regrets and sorrow in whatever drink he could find. His body trembled as sobs wracked his body.

                “Guy, please wake up,” A voice called to him.

                The former knight didn’t recognize the voice, staying trapped in his dream he decided the burning on his skin must be punishment for what he had done. Fire seared through his blood, and he accepted his descent into hell.

                “Guy, Just stay with me,” Ellyn murmured as she placed a damp cloth on his head. She didn’t think his fever would have gotten so much worse upon her arrival, but the sweat clinging to his clothes said otherwise.

                “I deserve this,” He muttered feeling his time was near an end.

                “No no,” Ellyn argued thinking he meant the fever. “Come on, I need you to sit up,” she said shifting so that his head was in her lap.

                Guy’s dark lashes fluttered for a moment and he caught a glimpse of the dark eyed woman hovering over him. He shook his head feeling something pressed to his lips and then something spill onto his chin.

                “This again,” Ellyn said with a sigh. “Its for your fever, please- p-please just drink the tea. You’ll feel b-better.” Her voice wavered ever so slightly and Guy had to ask himself why.

                Nothing was going to make Guy feel better. He had to atone for his crimes.

                “You promised you’d stay until you could take care of yourself,” Ellyn reminded him as he wiped a wet cloth over his face. “I’m going to hold you to that Guy. After you’re better you can do what you please, but right now you’re my responsibility, and I will not give up on you.”

                Guy finally forced himself to open his bleary blue eyes and look into her stubborn but concerned face. Her brows were furrowed low over her brown eyes. Once again she would not take ‘no’ for answer it seemed. He parted his lips and let her tilt the contents of the cup into his mouth little by little and swallowed as instructed. He felt more burning in the back of his throat, a dull and slow ache, the kind that comes with sitting to close to the fire. He blinked up at Ellyn slowly, realizing that the pain he felt in the dream was due to his fever and the tea she was making him drink.

                “Why?” He croaked quietly.

                “Why not?” she answered and gently moved the cloth over his face and brushing back his hair. “You can tell me why I shouldn’t later. But for now just rest, I need to check your wound for infection…”

                Guy took another drink of the tea she offered to him and gave a slow nod, before slowly drifting off again.

 

 

* * *

 

                When Guy woke up again it was already dark outside and the sound of crickets filled the cool night air. A single candle lit the one room hut casting a dim light across the dirt floor and wooden walls. On the far side of the room he saw Ellyn slumped against the wall and with red stains on her dress. He tried to sit up, but groaned in pain feeling pressure in his chest.

                “Don’t try to sit up you’ll hurt yourself,” Ellyn mumbled, her eyes still closed. She yawned and blinked open her eyes before crawling over to him and kneeling on the ground. “Feeling any better?” she asked picking up the cloth that had fallen off his forehead.

                Guy didn’t answer and just looked down at himself.

                She sighed quietly and wrung the cloth between her hands. “So it just so happened that part of your wound was already infected. Smelled real awful,” she looked away toward the candle, the shadows making her look more tired and her face hollow. “After you passed out, I took off the bandages took out the maggots, um…Does it hurt?” Ellyn asked and then quickly shook her head, “Don’t answer that, of course it does. You were stabbed twice and it got infected.” She put a hand on his forehead and let out a sigh of relief feeling that his temperature was gone. “You almost gave up on me there. Have you got something you want to tell me?”

                Guy looked up from his fresh bandages to Ellyn. She had already done so much for him. Probably saved his life twice in the time since she found him. He didn’t understand why she would. If she did know who he was or what he had done she was very good at keeping that to herself. Guy slowly shook his head.

                Ellyn nodded slowly, “I just thought I should ask. You were calling for someone in your sleep, Marian, do you need to get back to her? I know you are hurt now, but if you do need-“

                Guy raised his hand for Ellyn to stop talking. “No,  Its best not to mention what happened last summer,” he answered gruffly. He frowned and looked up at the ceiling. If Ellyn did not know what he had done before, she would find out while he slept.

                “Very well, we all have our secrets, I understand you might not want to tell a stranger.”

                Guy blinked his tired blue eyes at her, knowing in his heart that she would throw him out as soon as she knew of his crimes.

                “You don’t have to tell me now, or at all, but sometimes its better to tell a stranger such things. Even if you feel you will never see them again. It takes a weight off of here,” Ellyn answered tapping his chest over his heart. “At least that was what my husband used to say, before he left for the Holy Land.” She wrung out the cloth and dipped it in the bucket, wrung it again and laid it over Guy’s head. “Get some rest you need all that you can get.”

                Guy watched her fill a cup with water and drank slowly when she offered it to him. Still feeling tired he laid back only to move again as she put a pillow under his head and then fixed the cloth on his head. He watched her as she laid back on her mat, ”Goodnight Ellyn.”

                “Goodnight Guy, please let me know if you need anything.”

                Guy looked down at himself then back to Ellyn, “I will, and I do not think you would let me go without anything I might need regardless.” His words making a small smile coming across her face as she went to sleep.


End file.
